Best alternative to the multiplex

For many Boston filmgoers, the summer-movie drought would have been unendurable without the Harvard Film Archive. Its series "Treasures from the Archive from A to Z" -- thematic pairings of classic films drawn from the 9000 films in its collection -- offered an escape from the likes of Dumb and Dumberer and Freddy Vs. Jason. The selections ranged from "A Is for American Tragedy" featuring King Vidor's The Crowd and Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller to "Z Is for Zombies," pairing George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie, programming that reflects Archive director Bruce Jenkins's desire to show films fit for every taste. "We want to beat the rap of the little place that shows only Bulgarian silent films," says Jenkins. "We show every kind of movie, from a preview of Clint Eastwood's Mystic River to the latest film by Ming-Liang Tsai." But the Archive's strength is showing the foreign or independent film that viewers would never get a chance to see at their local multiplex, such as those in the upcoming European Film Festival in December. Among the films slated for that series, Jenkins especially recommends Swedish director Mikael Håfström's Evil and British director Sarah Gavron's This Little Life. Of the latter, which he saw with a tough audience of critics at the Toronto Film Festival, he says: "They all left in tears."

Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, (617) 495-4700; www.harvardfilmarchive.org.